Trump fires National Security Adviser John Bolton

US President Donald Trump has fired National Security Adviser John Bolton, saying he has “disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions.”

11/09/2019

1 minute read

“I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning,” Trump said in a tweet.

“I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week,” Trump continued.

This comes about 90 minutes before Bolton was expected to appear at a press briefing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Bolton offered a slightly different version of events than Trump, saying: “I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, ‘Let’s talk about it tomorrow.’”

Trump had sometimes joked about Bolton’s image as a warmonger, reportedly saying in one Oval Office meeting that “John has never seen a war he doesn’t like.”

Bolton has adopted an aggressive approach towards Iran since his appointment to the top post by Trump. Independent observers have accused him of conniving with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in order to provoke a military conflict between Iran and the United States.

Bolton has also opposed Trump’s peace initiative towards North Korea and urged the president to pursue gunboat diplomacy against the East Asian country.

Why Trump fired Bolton

US National Security Adviser John R. Bolton listens while US President Donald Trump speaks to the press in the Oval Office of the White House on May 13, 2019, in Washington, DC. (AFP photo)

American journalist and political analyst Don Debar said he knew he saw it coming. “I knew it would happen sooner or later.”

“People apparently don’t put themselves in Trump’s chair just to check out the view. He has managed to maintain himself in the office despite the best efforts of the CIA, FBI, Democratic and Republican Party establishment, supported by the corporate media,” he told Press TV.

“No one has ever withstood this; people like Howard Dean fold after three or four days of that kind of media coverage and a couple of phone calls from Langley. Trump manages to stand because he knows how to maintain a sufficient assembly of constituencies that would make it impossible to remove him in a way that seemed illegitimate,” he said.

“Again, look at North Korea. There is no way that he could walk into office and start negotiating with Kim Jong-un. First he had to kick him in the face, repeatedly and in public, to get the support of the various constituencies that would otherwise attack him for making peace. Once he has their support, he is free to make peace. This is what is happening with Iran also. Bolton is an example of the ‘tough cop’. It was hard to accuse Trump of appeasement if he had Bolton negotiating and talking crazy s–t,” he stated.